Jeremiah 3:1-5
Israel’s Three Time Zones
Since we are studying through the book of Jeremiah, I want to remind
you of what we have said so far. Two thoughts:
1. There is a lot of discussion about sin and judgment.
a. I have said that it will be repeated often.
b. Tonight, we are going to merely highlight a large portion
of this chapter because God is essentially repeating what
He has already told the nation.
2. Last week I told you that one of the main themes in this
chapter was REPENTANCE. Although Judah had sinned, God
was still offering to forgive them.
Outline:
I. \\#Jer 1:1-19\\ Jeremiah’s Calling
A. \\#1:1-3\\ Jeremiah’s Background
B. \\#1:4:10\\ Jeremiah’s Commission
1. \\#1:4-5\\ What God FORMED Jeremiah to do.
2. \\#1:6-9\\ What God ENABLED Jeremiah to do.
3. \\#1:10\\ What God COMMISSIONED Jeremiah to do.
C. \\#1:11-19\\ Jeremiah’s Conditioning
1. \\#1:11-12\\ Something Is About to Happen
2. \\#1:13-16\\ Something Is About to Boil Over
3. \\#1:16-19\\ Someone Needs to be Ready
II. \\#2:1-37\\ God’s Case Against Judah
A. \\#2:1-8\\ Judah Blessed but Not Satisfied
B. \\#2:11-13\\Judah Abandoned God.
C. \\#2:30\\ Judah Refused Correction
D. \\#2:9\\ Judah Called to Repentance.
E. \\#2:36-37\\ Judah Facing Judgment
III. \\#3:1-25\\ Israel’s Three Time Zones
A. \\#3:1-5\\ Their Past State
B. \\#3:6-19\\ Their Possible State
C. \\#3:20-25\\ Their Continuous State
I. \\#1-5\\ Their Past State
A. Theirs had been a sinful state.
B. This is that repetitive condemnation.
1. \\#1\\ Israel had "played the harlot with many lovers"
They had followed every kind of false deity that they
could find.
2. \\#2\\ "…see where thou hast not been lien with…"
You could not find a place where they had not
practiced their worship to false gods.
3. \\#3\\ "Therefore the showers have been withholden" -
So God had withheld the rains.
4. \\#4\\ "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me?" -
God asks them, "Will you repent now?" But of course,
they did not.
II. \\#20-25\\ Their Continuous State - I call this the continuous
state because it continues in large part to today.
A. \\#20\\ They have dealt "treacherously" with the Lord.
Whatever God had wanted of them, they had done the
opposite.
B. \\#21\\ "A voice was hear upon the high places, weeping
and supplications" - This is either the voice of them
praying to their false gods or more than likely, it is
the voice of the weeping because of the punishment of
them praying to their false gods.
C. \\#23\\ "Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the
hills" - Judah was looking for military help from other
nations. It was not going to come.
D. \\#24-25\\ Shame has and will cover these people until
they return to God.
1. \\#24\\ "For shame hath devoured the labor of our
fathers from our youth"
2. \\#25\\ "We lie down in our shame, and our confusion
covereth us"
3. And why? "…we and our fathers, from you youth
even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of
the Lord our God."
III. \\#6-19\\ Their Possible State
A. \\#6\\ Notice the date of this message.
1. "…in the days of Josiah"
2. Josiah was the last good king over Judah.
4. Four others will follow but they will all be evil
kings.
B. \\#6-11\\ Notice Judah’s object lesson.
1. \\#6\\ "Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel
hath done?"
a. It was Israel.
b. At the end of Josiah’s reign (he reigned 31 years
\\#2Ki 22:1\\) Israel had been gone for 113
years.
2. So Judah has seen both what Israel had done and what
had happened to them, but it did not change them!
a. \\#6\\ Judah saw what Israel had done.
b. \\#7\\ They saw that they did not repent.
c. \\#8\\ They saw that they did not fear.
d. \\#9\\ They continued in their sin until the land
itself was defiled.
e. \\#10\\ Even when Judah repented and experienced
some form of revival, God called it a "feigned"
repentance.
(1) Feigned means deceitful, not genuine.
(2) The verse said it was not "with her whole
heart."
3. \\#11\\ To that, God made an interesting statement.
Jer 3:11 And the LORD said unto me, The
backsliding Israel hath justified herself more
than treacherous Judah.
a. To justify means to vindicate or demonstrate that
one was right.
(1) What God is saying is that of the two
nations, Israel, the northern kingdom, was
more right than Judah.
(2) God had destroyed the northern kingdom out of
existence but now He says they are more
right in their actions than Judah.
(3) Why?
b. Israel was more just because God had given Judah
Israel has an object lesson.
(1) Obviously God takes circumstances into
consideration when reckoning people.
(2) Israel had sinned but God considers here that
they did not have an example of what those
kinds of sins would bring.
(3) Judah did.
(4) If Judah was more accountable before God than
Israel, what do you suppose He thinks of
America?
C. \\#12\\ Notice the condition that God is seeking.
1. It is repentance!
a. \\#12\\ "…Return, thou backsliding Israel…"
b. \\#14\\ "Turn, O backsliding children"
c. \\#22\\ "Return, ye backsliding children,
and I will heal your backslidings."
d. And look at the amazing statement…
Jer 3:1 They say, If a man put away his wife,
and she go from him, and become another man’s,
shall he return unto her again? shall not that
land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played
the harlot with many lovers; yet return again
to me, saith the LORD.
(1) To return to a former husband or wife after
marrying again was strictly forbidden by
God.
De 24:1 When a man hath taken a wife, and
married her, and it come to pass that she find
no favour in his eyes, because he hath found
some uncleanness in her: then let him write her
a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand,
and send her out of his house.
2 And when she is departed out of his house, she
may go and be another man’s wife.
3 And if the latter husband hate her, and write
her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her
hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if
the latter husband die, which took her to be
his wife;
4 Her former husband, which sent her away, may
not take her again to be his wife, after that
she is defiled; for that is abomination before
the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to
sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an
inheritance.
(2) \\#8\\ God said that He divorced Israel.
Jer 3:8 And I saw, when for all the causes
whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I
had put her away, and given her a bill of
divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared
not, but went and played the harlot also.
(3) But God says in \\#1\\ that if she will
repent, He WILL take her back.
(a) I know somebody will take that to mean
that God is double standard, i.e.
Himself breaking a rule that He told man
to obey.
(b) I would argue that this is God being
merciful and it is only because of mercy
and a Substitute payment that He could do
this. (i.e. Once God puts Israel’s sins
upon Jesus, their sins and the divorce
will be removed.)
(c) But one thing is certain, God is offering
them complete forgiveness and
restoration if they will repent.
2. We can also see what repentance is.
a. \\#13\\ "Only acknowledge thine iniquity" - Agree
with God that what we have done is sin.
b. \\#14\\ "Turn…" - And turn from it.
(1) That means to stop doing it.
(2) I am not certain that we have repented when
we keep doing the same sin over and over
again.
(3) God wanted them to do more than just
acknowledge their sins and be sorry for them.
He wanted them to STOP.
D. \\#14-19\\ Notice what will be Israel’s when they do.
1. While these promises COULD be fulfilled at any
time, they WILL NOT be fulfilled until the
millennium for Israel WILL NOT repent until
the tribulation.
2. Their Future
a. A Regathering
Jer 3:14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the
LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take
you one of a city, and two of a family, and I
will bring you to Zion:
(1) Remember, 1948 was not the final regathering
of the Jews.
(a) The anti-Christ will scatter them at
least one more time.
(b) I do not believe the Jews will lose
their land but many will flee from it.
(2) I notice that there will not be a lot of
people regathered.
(a) It will only be "one of a city" and
"two of a family."
(b) I suppose that means that there will not
be a lot of Jews left alive.
(c) The tribulation will result in many,
many Jews being killed.
i. It is estimated that there are
between 13.5 and 14 million Jews
today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/jewpop.html
http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/world-jewish-population.htm
ii. There is no reason to think that
those who survive the coming
tribulation will be a large
population.
iii. Virtually, none were left the
Assyrian captivity and only a very
few from the Babylonian captivity
\\#Eze 5:1-4\\.
(3) But they will be brought back to Zion, one
of the mountains that Jerusalem is built
upon.
b. God will give them good shepherds who will have
wisdom and understanding. This refers to both
civil and religious leaders.
Jer 3:15 And I will give you pastors according
to mine heart, which shall feed you with
knowledge and understanding.
c. The Ark of the Covenant will be forgotten.
Jer 3:16 And it shall come to pass, when ye be
multiplied and increased in the land, in those
days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more,
The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither
shall it come to mind: neither shall they
remember it; neither shall they visit it;
neither shall that be done any more.
(1) It has taken me many years to come to the
place where I could accept that God will
re-establish the priesthood and the
sacrifices during the millennium, but I
have.
(2) However, there is one piece of furniture
which will not be returned to the
millennium temple.
(3) That is the Ark of the Covenant.
a. The last time we have a historical
reference to the Ark was Josiah
RETURNING it to the temple. (It must
have been removed by the pagan kings.)
2Chron 35:1 Moreover Josiah kept a passover
unto the LORD in Jerusalem: and they killed the
passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2 And he set the priests in their charges, and
encouraged them to the service of the house of
the LORD,
3 And said unto the Levites that taught all
Israel, which were holy unto the LORD, Put the
holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of
David king of Israel did build; it shall not be
a burden upon your shoulders: serve now the
LORD your God, and his people Israel,
b. Although Jeremiah 52 lists what the
Babylonians took out of the temple, the
Ark is not listed there.
c. My own personal belief is that the Ark
still exists today, but that it has
been hidden for all of these centuries,
probably in the caves below Jerusalem.
d. However, once Jesus entered into the
heavenly Holy of Holies and placed His
blood on that Mercy Seat, the earthly
Mercy Seat became no longer valid.
e. Hence, it may be found one day but it
will never be used or considered of
any value as Jeremiah is prophesying
here.
d. Jerusalem will be the capital of the world, both
politically and religiously.
Jer 3:17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem
the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall
be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to
Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after
the imagination of their evil heart.
(1) There are many prophecies which make that
promise.
(2) This verse also tells us that the Jews will
be saved and forever changed during these
days.
e. The tribes of southern and northern kingdoms shall
be restored and reunited.
Jer 3:18 In those days the house of Judah shall
walk with the house of Israel, and they shall
come together out of the land of the north to the
land that I have given for an inheritance unto
your fathers.
(1) Another clear teaching of the Old Testament.
Eze 37:15 The word of the LORD came again unto
me, saying,
16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one
stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the
children of Israel his companions: then take
another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the
stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel
his companions:
17 And join them one to another into one stick;
and they shall become one in thine hand.
22 And I will make them one nation in the land
upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall
be king to them all: and they shall be no more
two nations, neither shall they be divided into
two kingdoms any more at all:
(2) How could God restore the northern kingdom,
a people destroyed 2800 years ago?
(3) He must have a remnant of each tribe
somewhere.
f. The Jews will finally love and worship God and God
alone.
Jer 3:19 But I said, How shall I put thee among
the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a
goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I
said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt
not turn away from me.
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